Chapter 13 Spanning Tree Protocol
GS2200 Series User’s Guide
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predefined interval (Max Age), the bridge assumes that the link to the root bridge is down. This 
bridge then initiates negotiations with other bridges to reconfigure the network to re-establish a 
valid network topology.
STP Port States 
STP assigns five port states to eliminate packet looping. A bridge port is not allowed to go directly 
from blocking state to forwarding state so as to eliminate transient loops. 
Multiple RSTP 
MRSTP (Multiple RSTP) is ZyXEL’s proprietary feature that is compatible with RSTP and STP. With 
MRSTP, you can have more than one spanning tree on your Switch and assign port(s) to each tree. 
Each spanning tree operates independently with its own bridge information. 
In the following example, there are two RSTP instances (MRSTP 1 and MRSTP2) on switch A. 
To set up MRSTP, activate MRSTP on the Switch and specify which port(s) belong to which spanning 
tree.
Note: Each port can belong to one STP tree only. 
Figure 68   MRSTP Network Example 
Table 28   STP Port States
PORT STATE DESCRIPTION
Disabled STP is disabled (default).
Blocking Only configuration and management BPDUs are received and processed.
Listening All BPDUs are received and processed.
Note: The listening state does not exist in RSTP.
Learning All BPDUs are received and processed. Information frames are submitted to the learning 
process but not forwarded.
Forwarding All BPDUs are received and processed. All information frames are received and forwarded.